NeoClow
by argentium115
Summary: Episodic chapters set 200 years after the show. There is a new Captor, new Guardians, and even a new deck of Clow! Almost totally unrelated to the actual show so please don't flame :)
1. Episode1

The First Installment of Card Captor: New Beginnings 

**Episode One-** _Meeting of the Guardians_

The rain beat mercilessly on the window of a shiny black Porsche as it flashed through the wet streets. Inside, a man with a menacing expression smiled darkly. A bright bolt of lightning slashed through the stormy sky, casting his face into vivid contrast. Whoever would have chanced to see him at that very moment would have been scared: the man had cold, brooding eyes, and a mouth cast in an almost perpetual grim smirk. Worst of all, there was a large scar slicing through his shadowed right eyebrow, a gash extending to his cheek. Anyone would have been frightened. He seemed to be looking for something, someone. As the lightning bolt's brilliance faded, the man melted once more into the shadows of his unlit Porsche. Waiting.

A mansion stood high up on the hill many people said was haunted. It was said that this mansion only appeared every thousand years or so; also, that strange things happened whenever it did. But on this stormy day, like any other residence in the area, Crystal Mansion had its windows shut. Like all of the other houses, it was dripping wet. Even the trees that stood as if to guard the mansion, the trees that people said were alive, were not exempt from the rhythm of the storm. The rain made the trees in front of the large mansion flail their branches in a wild dance.

Inside, looking out through a window on the third floor, the young owner of the mansion gazed out at the trees swaying in the gale. As cold as it was outside, the teen held an iced glass of chocolate in one hand and a cone of vanilla ice cream in the other, licking it contentedly now and then. He seemed to be expecting something as he contemplated the flooded road.

After some time, the black Porsche slid to a halt in front of the mansion, and the scarred man stepped out of it. The owner of the mansion snapped his fingers, and a silent, formal servant quickly sprang down the stairs to open the door for the somewhat-expected guest. Later, as the scarred man dried himself out in front of the first floor front lobby fireplace, the teen himself came strolling down the luxurious banistered staircase that spiraled gracefully through all three floors of the manor. "Ah, so you're here, monsieur---"

"Agnus Darkyce, please. It's a strange name, but well, I was born with it."

"Monsieur Darkyce, then. Strange indeed, but rather fitting, if you are what I think you are… I am the master of Crystal Mansion, and am called Neptune Liquicia. Pray, make yourself at home."

"Well, then, Sir Liquicia…"

"Neptune, please."

"Neptune. If I may, who or what is it that you take me to be? You are younger than I, by about fifteen years as I see it. I think it impossible that you would know my secrets."

The boy laughed, a cultured and yet childishly merry peal. "I have many useful spies, Monsieur Darkyce. Do forgive me." Then, with a sudden twist of unexpected candor, he said, "You see, monsieur, I thought you might be one of the three so-called Guardians, in secret. It has been predicted for a very long time that the Three would meet here at Crystal Mansion today…"

"You got me there," replied Darkyce, nonplussed by the teen's frank admittance. He did not even seem surprised. "You must be the Book Guardian, are you not? For one so young as you, only the Book itself could have made these things known. And yet, the day draws to a close quickly! Already it is five minutes to tomorrow. The last Guardian, I am afraid, might not come after all."

"No." said Neptune, shaking his head. "Five minutes is a long time."

There was a rap at he door, and a soft, plaintive voice calling, "Please let me in!" Neptune smiled knowingly at Darkyce. "See? There he is now."

But even the Book had not prepared Neptune for the sight that greeted his eyes. Instead of another man, at least as old as he was, powerful and wise, there stood a ten-year-old girl forlornly dripping rainwater on his plush front lobby carpet. She looked very scared, very small (which, indeed, she was), and very uncomfortable.

Finally, good manners got the best of the teen's disappointment and surprise. "Do come in," he told the girl. "I'm terribly sorry for making you wait in that cold outside. Welcome to Crystal Mansion. Please, feel free to dry yourself out in front of the fire."

The girl's dripping countenance immediately cleared. "There's a fire here? Good. I thought I'd have to freeze to death. My name is Aurora Brimstone. My dad calls me Spark. I hate the cold!"

She ran to the fire and promptly dried herself. Staring at the girl, half bemused and half in amazement, Neptune noticed tiny tongues of flame licking at her clothes, at her hair. Even more surprising was that the fiery tendrils actually seemed to be coming out of her! Unbelievable… but perhaps it was only his imagination…

Darkyce was speaking; apparently Neptune had missed a bit of conversation between his two unlikely guests. "You can't be the third Guardian," the scarred man insisted. The girl was irate. "Why ever not?" she pouted.

"Well… because you're young. You're small--- as in, _tiny_…" Neptune supplied helpfully (if a trifle rudely --- the girl flared up at the interruption and looked about to pounce). Then, with a disbelieving, incredulous shake of his head, he continued. "And… you're a _girl_!" Still, almost as he said the words, tiny tendrils of flame seemed to be springing out of his memories, coating her, drying her, belonging to her…

Ouch!

She'd stepped on his foot, bringing him out of his reverie. _Hard_. Hoo boy, this girl was something. Some tempest! Okay fine. So she was the third Guardian, if she so wished it.

A glance at the luminous grandfather clock in the corner showed that it was exactly one minute past midnight. The prophecy had been fulfilled.


	2. Episode2

The First Installment of Card Captor: New Beginnings 

**Episode Two-** _A Possible Card Captor_

"I've waited a long time for this day."

It was true. Each Guardian had spent centuries guarding the precious NeoClow. It had been two hundred years since the first Card Captor, Kinomoto Sakura, had released the Clow Deck made by Clow Read, catching every card and turning each into Sakura Cards. When finally the task was done, Sakura and her friends (who had been in Grade Four, ten years old), Daidouji Tomoyo (Sakura's cousin and best friend), Eriol Hiragizawa (Sakura's classmate, Clow Read's half-reincarnation), and the descendants of the magical family of Clow Read, Li Syaoran and Li Mei Ling, secretly devoted their lives to creating a new Clow deck, which they finished in their last year of college. They had called it the NeoClow, and supplied it with its three most powerful cards: the Guardians Dragonflame, Frozenshade and Scarface. Then they set the Guardians free of the deck… separately.

Three generations had passed since then, three that were closely monitored by each Guardian, none of whom knew how the others looked like in physical form. One carried the Book of Clow, a compilation of both Clow and NeoClow, along with various visions and predictions by Clow Read, Eriol, Sakura, and Syaoran (Tomoyo and Mei Ling had no magical powers). Another had the Spellcaster, a book of summons that could get the help of the NeoClow authors and Clow Read, or the Guardians created by Clow Read and Eriol (Sakura's dad was the other, non-magical half of Clow Read). The last was the Weapon Smith and kept the Guardians' weapons.

It had been prophesied long before that on the year of the silver dragon, the Guardians would meet on a stormy night. It would be the thirteenth day of the seventh month. The potential card captor would celebrate his or her tenth birthday the next day; the one who could feel the summons using inborn ESP (as all from the bloodline of Read had, with the exception of Li Mei Ling) and forego the celebration to answer the calling was to face trial by Guardian.

Today was the day, and the summons had already been sent out. The Three were clustered still in the Crystal Mansion. Aurora was plopped on a large beanbag she had procured, biting her lower lip and her nails alternately in tension. Darkyce, who had spoken, was silent once more; he stared out of the large window with his eyes unfocused and roving. The master of the mansion, however, could not have been calmer: he had a glass of iced chocolate and yet another vanilla ice cream, and seemed quite content.

The front door bell rang, and the Guardians snapped to attention.

"Did you have anything delivered?" growled Darkyce. Neptune shook his head. No. "Brimstone?" he barked at Aurora.

"Not that I recall…" she faltered. "Good, then," sighed Darkyce.

Could this be the one they had long been waiting for?

The butler hovered hesitantly at the door. His master had acted very strangely, accommodating two complete strangers who came in from the storm yesterday night, when he had purposely kept away from people and had no acquaintances save for the servants. Would his uncharacteristic hospitality continue further, or would this third guest be turned away? Finally, he decided to take his master's mood for all it was worth. He opened the door to let the child waiting outside in.

The child entered the hallway uncertainly. He didn't know why he had the sudden impulse to leave his birthday celebration and run up the haunted hill. Furthermore he was surprised to see that instead of being bare and barren, a huge mansion with sprawling gardens stood on top of the hill. The gardens were well tended, and he had assumed that the house (well, the castle, then) was inhabited because of that.

And it was! Why, it was magnificent! Just like in the fairy tales! A butler, and servants bustling about, and rich, deep carpets…

And silence. It bothered him. With so much people why was never a sound heard outside? Why hadn't he ever seen any of these people before, when he lived just at the bottom of the hill?

And if he had never seen them before, why did the mansion and the faces inside it almost seem… familiar?

The child wandered along the dimly lit halls. Something seemed to draw him inexorably toward a closed door, and he found himself wondering inexplicably what could be hidden behind it. Well, he was about to find out.

Neptune himself opened the door for the hesitant child. He glanced out at him and flashed a rare and very brief smile. "Welcome to my humble abode," he said. "I trust the butler has been satisfactory in his service? Please, come in. My friends and I have just been having a little chat." Sensing that the boy was a little leery, Neptune assumed that he was apprehensive about meeting a group of snotty old rich men and threw open the door. "See?" he said with a slightly bigger smile, "all normal. I'm not as snooty as you probably think."

Unfortunately, Aurora had temporarily disappeared into the bathroom and Darkyce, well, was being himself.

"Come on in," insisted the master of the house finally. "My iced tea is getting warm. I insist! After all, I let you in my house, and I don't even know who you are." Darkyce smirked visibly, and Neptune glared icy daggers at him. "You're a different story altogether, of course, monsieur Darkyce. By the way," he said, "my name is Neptune Liquicia. You may call me Neptune, if you prefer."

"Darkyce," growled the owner of that name.

"And I'm Aurora Brimstone. My dad calls me Spark, though," grinned the only female Guardian, bouncing out of the bathroom with a towel in her hand. "Neptune, you haven't got any hot water running in this house, have you?" she complained. "First rain, now this? My complexion's getting ruined! Phoenix is never this cold. Drat!"

The boy grinned. _'That girl's got some fire in her! And she's about my age, too. I suppose this Neptune-fellow can't be so snooty after all,'_ he thought. "I'm Li Keitaro. I'm half Chinese, half Japanese. I turned 10 today," he said proudly.

"We know," nodded Aurora sagely.

"You---"

Darkyce interrupted impatiently. "You have felt a strange compulsion today, am I right? That is why you are in _this mansion_, in _this room_. Other children felt this compulsion, but only you were brave enough to follow it."

"We sent a message out," blurted Aurora.

"Yes, we did. Through ESP. Children of the Li clan and other psychic families would have heard it. You are the only one to heed it," nodded Neptune. "Now you must learn of your destiny."

"My… destiny?"

And so, the trial by Guardian was begun. Keitaro was told the history of Clow, NeoClow, the Guardians, and the previous Card Captor. Tonight would be the first trial.

"You do realize, of course, that this is the first time any of us will be doing this?" wheedled Aurora. "I don't think I can…"

Neptune put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and squeezed it lightly. "Be strong, little one. Our trials have only begun."


	3. Episode3

The First Installment of Card Captor: New Beginnings 

**Episode Three**- _The Judging of the Keeper_

Li Keitaro sighed, remembering the stories his grandparents had told him about his great-grandparents, who had been the authors of the NeoClow deck. It had all seemed so farfetched, so _interesting_, to him then, but now that he was actually facing the real thing, he was beginning to have second thoughts. The three Guardians were all so different from what he had expected… the girl, Spark, was about as unprofessional as you could get; she was his age and quite childish. She was often answering pertly back at Neptune, whom she seemed to like, and always teased Darkyce rather impertinently. Neptune was another matter; he was cool. He was always calm and collected, businesslike, and he was used to authority. Every servant in the house immediately jumped to do his bidding. They also kept well out of Monsieur Darkyce's way, because he often brooded and would look fit to kill whenever someone threw him out of his reverie.

And they expected so much of him!

Just how much, he realized quite soon. Neptune had gone out of the room, but now returned, bearing a large, ornate tome and what seemed to be a pendant. Both book and pendant had the symbols of the moon, the sun, a star, and the earth on them.

"Is… is this the Clow Book and the Key?"

"No and yes," replied Neptune smoothly. "It isn't the Clow Book; it's the NeoClow Book. The Sakura Book was pink, the Clow Book black; this one, in case you haven't noticed, goes from dark purple to dark blue, and then to dark green. But you're right, this pendant is the Key."

Keitaro made a grab for it, but was stopped by Neptune's upraised hand.

"Not yet," he said.

"There are five tests. You passed the first one when you answered the call. The next test will be one for speed. You will fight the fastest Guardian--- Fire. Then the test of strength shall follow: you shall undergo my challenge. The fourth is the test of wisdom, and you shall face the oldest and wisest of the Three."

He made as if to leave. "You ought to get ready. Aurora is already waiting for you outside."

"Wait." Keitaro raised a detaining hand and grabbed Neptune's sleeve. The older boy stopped and gazed coolly at him, calmly smoothing the rumples in his sleeve. Keitaro found himself stammering awkwardly. "Um… you… er, you said there were five tests… Right?"

"Ah, yes," replied Neptune vaguely with a small, distant smile as he turned away once more to step out of the door. "You will know when the time comes."

"Oh, and by the way," he added as he disappeared into the shadowy hall with the smallest of waves, "there are some bittersweet chocolate-covered peppermint cakes in the next room… pick the ones with lots of foil."

_'That was helpful,' _thought Keitaro as he hurried along the hallway outside into the wide, immaculate garden of Crystal Mansion. _'What am I supposed to be doing with these? I don't like dark chocolate…'_ Coming out of the room Neptune had pointed out with three sweets in his pocket--- he had taken some time picking out the three with the most foil wrappings, although to what purpose he didn't know--- he glimpsed Spark outside through a large, tinted window, and he stopped a moment to watch. She was so fast! How was he supposed to compete with her speed? In fact, how could he not have noticed it? She moved--- well, she moved like light, fluid and fast. But if he really was the Captor…

She raised her head and beheld him at the window. She smiled brilliantly, waving him over. Cupping her hands to her mouth, she shouted, "Come on down!" Keitaro nodded silently. He turned and ran the rest of the way into the garden.

She smiled impishly at him, pretty and vibrant, as she explained his next task. "There are five flowers in the garden: a lily, a rose, a dahlia, an amaryllis, and a lotus. Of course there are more, but only those five among the others are special--- each holds a jewel inside it. You need to find your way through the maze---" Keitaro noticed, for the first time, that indeed there was a maze of tall hedges in the garden, and thought disconcertedly, _'I must be going blind,'_--- "find the said flowers, and pick out the one with the blood ruby inside it according to clues you will find along the maze _before I do_. This is a test for both your mental and physical speed; I will give you five minutes' head start. The catch is this--- I know the quickest way through the maze, I know exactly which flower has the ruby, and, as you probably noticed, I am very, _very_ fast."

Keitaro stared dumbly at her, blinking blankly.

"Fun, isn't it?" she giggled. "Your five minutes starts… now."

The would-be-Captor turned wordlessly and ran for the hedges.

Right… right… left… right… another left…

"Great, just _great_," Keitaro mumbled angrily a few moments later, yanking his pant leg free of the clinging hedge. As he bent to unstick it from the few unyielding thorns still fastened to it, he noticed a small slip of paper hanging on to a thorn at his eye level. Picking it out of the hedge ("Ouch!"), he read:

_A multitude of skirts_

_Dress this pretty princess_

_In rainbow hues and shades…_

A multitude of skirts… _'That must mean petals… it has many of them… and it must be colorful…'_ Well, that removed the lily. Lilies only had six petals, usually; and besides most lilies were white. _Usually_. And _most_. He went back to guessing his way out of the maze.

As the seconds ticked by, he found himself wondering what the peppermint chocolates were for. He'd heard of sugar highs, but surely that wasn't what Neptune meant? Was he supposed to get hyper on a sugar overdose? But how would that help him? Besides, he disliked dark chocolate, and had only a passing preference for peppermint. An ego-booster? It didn't seem like Neptune to be so impractical…

Keitaro walked right smack into the hedge and fell down. As he shook his head free of the jarring impact, he saw a small scrap of paper float down from he knew not where. He caught it, hoping it was another clue. It was.

_If leaves were all you'd look at,_

_Mine would not be geometric in design,_

_In short they do not run in parallel lines._

Not parallel lines? The flower wasn't a monocot, then. Goodbye, lily. Goodbye, amaryllis. That left only three choices, and Keitaro quickened his pace. Four minutes gone…

Wait a minute. Was that a clearing ahead?

It was. And in the hedge, artfully spelled out with flowers, was another clue.

_This is the last clue you will find,_

_ The rest you must figure out with only your mind. _

_Fragrance is held in as high regard as art,_

_Yet I hold no fragrance in my heart._

"That's it? Just three clues?" exclaimed Keitaro, dismayed. "I don't think that's fair." And he still did not know what the candy was for. Was it supposed to make him faster?

Spark suddenly sped into view. Keitaro was taken aback at her speed; she was gaining on him, and fast. Maybe he should eat the candy… oh, why did Neptune have to make him choose those with a lot of foil? Unwrapping them would take a lot of time…

Suddenly, in a flash of insight, he understood. The sweets weren't for _him_ to _speed up_; they were for _her_ to _slow down_. Drawing one out of his pocket, he dropped it discreetly where she was sure to find it.

She picked it up, hardly breaking her stride, and slipped it into her own pocket. Keitaro drew another from his pocket and threw it some distance away. Brimstone faltered, and swerved to get the sweet. She hesitated briefly before putting it, too, into her pocket.

The flowers were in sight; Keitaro felt sure it wouldn't be the rose, for roses were fragrant. And he was right; Spark was making a beeline for the dahlia, just beyond the pond where the lotus lay. Keitaro now knew his goal; he removed the last peppermint from his pocket and threw it as hard as he could in the opposite direction. As he hoped, she backtracked and went to catch it.

"Well, you won," she said later as he handed her the ruby. "Although how you knew…" Her eyes narrowed into slits at the "innocent" smile the master of the house gave her, and the just-as-"innocent" lopsided grin Keitaro blessed her with. "He told you, didn't you?"

A guilty smile. "Have you never heard the tale of Atalanta and the Golden Apples, Aurora?" said Neptune softly. "It is a Greek myth…"

Keitaro's eyes narrowed. "You knew I'd think of that, didn't you?" he wondered suspiciously. Neptune nodded. "I had hoped so," he replied.

"But who was Atalanta?" pressed Aurora, her mouth full of candy. Her eyes were full of childish query; she was truly curious.

"Atalanta was a girl who was so good in sports that she could beat any man," said Keitaro. "She boasted that she would marry any man who could beat her in a footrace. Many tried… all failed. Until finally (…) asked help from Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who gave him 3 golden apples. Nobody could resist them. During the race (…) threw the first apple close by, the second further, and the third as far away as he could. Atalanta went to pick them up and lost the race. She married him, but she didn't mind because he was smart and fast."

Aurora nodded. "Ah, well, I don't mind, either," she replied carelessly, ever the optimistic child. "Not at all. Neptune would have never given me any of his precious chocolates otherwise, and I do _so_ adore them! Peppermint cakes!" She munched contentedly on a peppermint, and sent an angelic smile to Neptune, who grinned back.

"You passed my test, by the way," she said softly to Keitaro. "The time is coming for you to face the next."

"No, not yet," replied Neptune. "Go home, child."

"We will await your return," grunted Darkyce, the only words he had spoken during the duration of Keitaro's knowing him, except for introducing himself.

"But when?"

"You will know… when the time comes."


	4. Episode4

The First Installment of Card Captor: New Beginnings 

**Episode Four**- _The Battle of Might and a War of Wits_

Keitaro lay on his bed that night, pondering the unusualness of what had just transpired. Had it really been only a day that he had known them? Had he really gone up the haunted hill just that morning, and had he really met the three most unexpected people there, in a mansion on top of a supposedly barren hill?

Had he really passed two of five tests that could qualify him as a Card Captor? Were all the stories his grandparents told him true?

Or… was it all just a dream?

The next morning brought an answer. It was Monday, and Keitaro woke up to the sound of his alarm clock going off. Blinking back his drowsiness, he looked at its blinking fluorescent face and promptly shot out of bed with a yell.

"Six o'clock?!"

His mother's voice drifted into his bedroom from the kitchen downstairs. "Keitaro? Your school bus arrives in ten minutes, you'd better be ready!"

"In a minute, mom!"

He leapt into the bathroom and took the quickest shower ever recorded in the history of mankind. Shooting out of the bathroom, he dressed hurriedly in his uniform and slid down the banisters to his exasperated mom. "You woke up late again, didn't you?" she sighed, holding out his packed lunch and a jelly sandwich just as the bus screeched to a halt in front of their house.

"No time to chat, mom!" he exclaimed. _'Saved by the bell--- er, bus!'_ He planted a swift kiss on his mother's cheek as he flew out of the door, school bag askew, and into the bus. He waved merrily at her from the window when he had sat down.

He was just unwrapping the jelly sandwich when the bus stopped once more in front of a house. Keitaro was surprised when the student there promptly sat down next to him. "Nice breakfast," she remarked. "In a hurry, huh?"

Startled, he looked up at her. He choked.

"Spark?"

She smiled. "The one and only."

They were soon the center of attention. Even Butch Fester, the neighborhood toughie, was interested. "Yo, girl. You new?" he asked. Butch sat behind Keitaro at the bus. Spark turned to give him a sunny smile, and extended her hand for a shake. "Yup," she said. "Name's Aurora Brimstone, but people usually call me Spark." Butch took her hand and gave it a sound shake before turning his attention on Keitaro.

"You better not keep this pretty dish to yourself, y'hear me?" he said gruffly, poking Keitaro every other word for emphasis. Keitaro nodded dumbly.

That day in school, Spark was once again the center of attention. Looking at her carefully, Keitaro couldn't see what everyone else saw in her, except that she was very friendly. Still all the guys said she was pretty. Oh well. He was attracted to her too, somehow ("It's just the elemental energy you know… Nakuru, Yukito, Syaoran and Sakura felt the same way about each other", said Spark) but at least he didn't have a crush on her! No, he liked that girl… the one that was always sitting at the back of the room, quietly doing her schoolwork. The one with large glasses and short, wavy blonde hair. The smart one.

"Hi, I'm Heart Rae Saul. Call me Rae for short."

Keitaro looked up, surprised, as the object of his affectionate thoughts spoke. She had gone up and introduced herself to Spark. Glancing sideways, he saw that Spark had eagerly reached for the proffered hand and happily shook it. "Aurora Brimstone, but my nick's Spark." Rae smiled, and Keitaro knew instinctively that those two were a match made in heaven; they were born to be the best of friends.

But even soul mates would not last long when faced with an insurmountable secret, and Spark soon found herself longing to tell her newfound friend the truth about herself. She clamped down on that thought with the iron will she'd practiced with the help of Darkyce (Neptune tended to spoil her; he had an elder sister, but she had long left Crystal Mansion, and everybody, including the butler and Neptune, was only too pleased to have another female presence in the house) and consoled herself with the thought, _'She'll never believe me anyway.'_

Unfortunately for her, Fate had a different idea.

That afternoon, after school, Rae was surprised to see Keitaro and Spark leaving the school together. _'Doesn't Keitaro go on the bus? And for that matter, I don't think they live near each other, do they?'_ But it was none of her business, so she pushed it out of her mind as she rode her bike home.

Meanwhile, Spark and Keitaro had arrived at Crystal Mansion, and the Second Test was about to begin.


End file.
